How do we put the theoretical ideas of Functional

Grammar into practice?

Functional grammar looks at language in context and thus, focuses on the actual function of
words and word patterns. This allows students to retrieve meaning from texts and in turn
construct their own quality texts in similar and related contexts. The SFG approach can be
integrated across the disciplinary areas, during science, history, etc by asking students ‘Who is
involved, what are they doing and what has happened’ which relates to the components of ‘field,
tenor and mode’. However, teachers must ensure that they direct their questioning towards the
grammatical ideas behind texts.

Let the teaching begin!

As an introduction to functional grammar, ensure that students know that we are going to look at
a fun way of turning ‘boring’ writing, into ‘super’ writing and that we are going to use three
colours (red, green and blue) to helps us. Across the top of the whiteboard, display functional
questions that are concerned with the features of SFG: process, participants and
circumstances. The example below will integrate a traditional approach to teaching grammar
whilst using a functional method for contextualised learning.
Using the above image as an example, a typical discussion surrounding this display may be:

Teacher: What can you tell me about the red words?

Student: (expected response), They are people, things (and some might label them as nouns).
Teacher: Yes, these words highlight ‘who’ or ‘what’ is dancing, swimming or surfing.

The teacher can continue to use probing questions by asking students what both the green and blue
words represent.

Next, the teacher can present the students with a series of sentences where students will need a
green, red and blue pencil. Examples of sentences could be:

My dog is eating apples on the grass.

My cat sleeps in the sun.
Jane is singing an awful song.
Yesterday, I went to the park.
At my grandpa’s house, I have a bike.

Then we can work through the clauses one by one in the following way:

Teacher: In the first sentence 'My dog is eating apples on the grass', what is going on? What is the
dog doing?
Student: It’s eating
Teacher: So what colour do we underline it and why?
Student: Green because the dog is eating, that’s what it’s doing.
Teacher: Who is eating?
Student: the dog.
Teacher: so what colour do we underline that and why?
Student: Red because the tog tells us its eating the apples.
Teacher: so the dog is eating what?
Student: Apples
Teacher: And what colour do we underline apples?
Student: Red because apples tells us what the dog is doing.
Teacher: Where is the dog eating the apples?
Students: on the grass.
Teacher: so what colour and why do we underline it in that colour?
Students: blue because it tells us that the dog is eating the apples ON the grass.

This process can be used to explicitly teach grammar and the way it functions in a given text.

In the following class, students must write a sentence using colours (red, green and blue). :
This activity solidifies what was learnt in previous classes and can help teachers develop and
understanding of the knowledge gained and what needs to be worked on.

Red, green, red : eg: Martha is playing with the cat.

Red, green, blue:

Blue, red, green, red:

Blue, red, green, blue:

Using Literature to teach Functional

Grammar
In order for students to make links to 'how' functional grammar is used in text, students can select a
page from any novel and look at the way grammar is used to depict a meaning and purpose. This
activity is a great idea so students are shown realistic representations of grammar use. Take for
example, the popular novel 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'. Below is an example of the
way students can select any page, and differentiate 'how' grammar is used to portray meaning.

As you can see, I have gone through and demonstrate the way functional grammar has taken place
in this text. Once students have been able to identify the 'participant, process and circumstance'
students can make an adaptation to the text. They would be required to identify other verbs
(process) and adjectives (circumstance) to recreate the story.
Using the example above, the teacher can model this process. Then, students could use the base
structure of the text to construct new grammatical words by writing something as follows:

" Argus Filch, ran clumsily through the mass of people. Soon after, he saw Mrs Norris and
collapsed, holding his face in disbelief. "

Students can use this approach to examine various multimodal texts. This is particularly significant
as students can link grammar beyond novels. Not only is this method useful for learning about 'types
of speech', it will ultimately facilitate students in building upon a word bank to create diversity and
expand their vocabulary both in a written or oral context. Furthermore, this approach can be
integrated across disciplinary areas.